“Fate often liked to give encounters one wouldn’t have believed to happen for real, and normally consigned to the stuff of fairy tales instead.” - Old Hassidian saying.

“It is indeed quite a sight, is it not, madams?” asked a male voice from beside the group while they admired the statues on the fountain. Several of the group turned to see a young man of mixed breed, his golden-brown hair styled to resemble a lion’s mane. On a closer look, Cal noticed some resemblance between the man and one of the statues, that of Andrey Veroz. “I always felt that this square had the best view in town because of them.”

“Trying to hit on the wrong girls once again, aren’t you, brat?” chimed in a much older voice before anyone in the group could say a word in reply. The voice came from a very old duck therian who walked over with light-footed steps like someone much younger, who reprimanded the mixed-breed man without any hesitation. “Last time you tried something like this it was the Hassidian ambassador’s daughter you pestered.”

“Oh come on, teach, what did I do wrong this time?” complained the younger man, as another man - a human from his looks - accompanied the old duck as he walked towards them, while carrying a large folder of papers in his hands.

“Well, for one, if you were to try your womanizing ways with this group most of them can likely rip you into shreds too small for even your pets to chew on,” said the old duck as he gave a nod of acknowledgement to the group. Cal noticed how Kino nodded back, and immediately upped her appraisal of the old, seemingly very healthy old duck by a notch. “Also, you two ladies can drop your cowls. It won’t be that big of an issue here. We get visitors from all over anyway.”

Kyara and Ashani exchanged looks, but as they noticed Kino’s nod, they lowered their cowls, which made the young flirt almost jump out of his skin in surprise. The sight made quite a few of the group openly laugh, especially Willa and the two cat-therians themselves.

“Good to see you doing well, old duck,” said Kino as she walked over and gave the old duck therian a friendly hug, which the old duck returned in kind. “Haven’t seen you since the last time you visited, like half a century ago.”

“Fifty-three years, six months and four days to be precise,” replied the old duck. “Good to see you doing well too though, old friend. I take it everyone in Paradise is doing fine?”

“They are. We even got some new people around. Cal there had her family move over, even,” said Kino with a smile on her face. “Oh right, Cal, this is Mallard, the foremost authority in traditional medicines and therian physiology. Mallard, this is Celeysria Ambervale, of Al-Shan.”

“That’s Professor Doctor Mallard McFowler, young lady!” Said the old duck in reprimand to Kino, though it was a good-natured one since the two seemed to be old friends. “And a pleasure to meet you, Dame Ambervale. Your reputation precedes you.”

“Nice to meet you too… Professor McFowler,” said Cal as she accepted the old duck’s outstretched wing and shook it. Kino was giggling on the side so she figured that their relationship must be an old and good one, and jokeful reprimands like these were just how they treated each other.

“Mallard here’s one of the oldest amongst us unliving,” said Kino without preamble after her giggling subsided. She had told Cal before that like Aideen, she had become an unliving first, and champion only much later. “I think he rose as one only like months after Aideen did. If you counted his actual age on top, he’d be one of the very oldest amongst us, along with Drietven. Speaking of which, are those two kids your students, old duck?”

“Yes, the Erstgertsog had asked a favor for me to teach his brats properly, out of which this one here’s the eldest,” said the old duck with a sigh, the talons on his left wing-claw pinched around the young mixed-breed man’s ear painfully. “This is Igor Anduislav Veroz, and that young one there’s Tal. He’s actually useful and been serving as my assistant of late, unlike this womanizing lout.”

“Tal Knizhnyycherv, at your service, madam,” said the young man with a polite bow. The young human looked rather unassuming and had no particularly distinguishing features, other than his sharp, dignified eyes. “I do apologize for my cousin’s behavior.”

“Oh? You’re cousins?” asked Willa from the far end of their group. She happened to be on the far side from where Igor had come from and was partly covered from sight by the others.

“Miss Ulfsmund, an honor to see you,” replied Tal, who clearly recognized her. “But yes, our mothers are sisters, so Igor here is my first cousin. I know he is a womanizer, but I had never seen him be so dumb to try to flirt with the champion of the latest tournament of all things.”

“I told your uncle many times that he ought to geld one of this brat’s balls. He clearly used them far too much to think rather than his head!” said the old duck which elicited some more laughter, including some very uncomfortable ones from the cousins.

“I actually didn’t know you’re working here at this time, you old coot. You never keep us up to date,” said Kino after the laughter subsided. “Why don’t you show them around a bit if you got some time? It’s their first time in this region for many of them.”

“Not a bad idea. Actually, I think it might be even better to have these two brats do it,” replied Mallard with his bill forming the equivalent of a smirk. “After all, these two are the locals here. They ought to know the good places and all better than me… don’t you boys?”

“Y-yes, professor.” replied both youngsters with some nervousness in their voices.